Re: Corpora: Fast edit distance algorithms

Paul Bowden (pmr@doc.ntu.ac.uk)
Mon, 01 Nov 1999 10:34:22 +0000

I use something called the Ratcliff-Obershelp algorithm, which returns a
percentage similarity between any two words.

Unfortunately, I can't give you a reference to it, as I learned of it many
years ago in "Computing", a British trade newspaper. But I coded it up in
'C' and it works a treat! (Perhaps someone could give ME a reference to
this algorithm?)

Regards,

At 11:26 AM 10/29/99 -0400, Mark Lewellen wrote:
>Hello, corpora list-
> Can anyone point me to relatively recent work (roughly
>the last five years) on fast methods of computing edit distance?
>I'm interested in algorithms that compare pairs of individual words
>(not algorithms that search long text strings for approximate matches
>of words). Opinions on fastest methods welcome also. I'll post a
>summary of responses to the list. Thanks-
>
>Mark
>
>-------------------------
>Dr. Mark Lewellen
>L&H-AppTek
>mlewellen@apptek.com
>
>
Paul R. Bowden
Lecturer, Dept. of Computing
Nottingham Trent University